The massive looting of public funds during the administrations of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan came to the fore, Monday, as top government officials and businessmen were said to have illicitly enriched themselves with public funds, amounting to over N1.35 trillion.

The chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Itse Sagay, disclosed this in Abuja, at the conference on Promoting International Co-operation in Combating Illicit Financial Flows and Enhancing Asset Recovery to Foster Sustainable Development.

Citing a study, Prof. Sagay said that the corruption captured in the study related to only six years (2006- 2013).

The PACAC chairman said that the figure of looted funds in the period under review was much higher when fuel subsidy scam, billion arms purchase scam, hundreds of millions of dollars taken from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation by a former minister to bribe election officials in 2015, were taken into consideration.

In his address, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, said that the federal government would sanction banks that aide illicit financial flows from the country.

According to him, it would not have been possible to divert the volume of funds in question from public organizations without the involvement of banks.

Details later…